Development of a Milli-fluidic Flow Cell Platform for Consistent and Quantitative Analysis of Inhibitor Persistency (C2026-00049)

Richard Barker, Richard Woollam, Harry Tookey, Joshua Owen, Geoff Hughes, Peter Wilkie, Alistair Kirkpatrick, Emily Xu, Marco Castillo del Rio, Joseph Thevakumar

Chemical corrosion inhibitors are among the most widely used and cost-effective solutions for internal corrosion control in the energy sector. These inhibitors are typically applied via continuous or batch injection, with the effectiveness of either method heavily dependent on the ‘persistence’ of the inhibitor.
Despite the long-standing use of batch treatments and the concept of persistency, many field applications lack a structured approach, often resulting in sub-optimal chemical selection and application strategies. This is largely due to limited understanding of the factors influencing persistency and the difficulty of replicating real-world injection scenarios in laboratory environments.
This paper reviews current methodologies for assessing inhibitor persistence in both batch and continuous injection systems, outlining their respective strengths and limitations. Subsequently, a novel milli-fluidic flow cell platform is introduced as a complementary technique, offering rapid transitions in fluid chemistry ( <1 minute), reduced test solution volumes, operation under elevated pressure and temperature (up to 10 bar and 120°C) and delivering long-duration (days to weeks) of constant-composition fluid chemistry.
Initial experimental results demonstrate the platform’s ability to simulate disruptions in continuous injection, highlighting the critical role of the initial inhibitor adsorption and degree of surface coverage in determining inhibitor persistence.